An enjoyable, mystical coming-of-age, complete with quick getaways, motorcycle chases and no distraction from the...
Kincy serves up this series entry blessedly free from the Other novels' usual heavy-handed racism metaphors, finally offering the characters a straightforward action-adventure.
Tavian, the romantic object of Other (2010), is returning to a Japan he hasn't seen since he was 6 years old. What should be a routine visit to the adoptive grandparents he's never met is haunted—literally—by a faceless ghost, a noppera-bo, that seems to be tailing him. Tavian is a kitsune, a fox shifter, and his accompanying girlfriend, Gwen, is half-pooka. There is much less bigotry against the shape-shifting Others in Tokyo than Tavian experienced in rural Washington, but there's plenty of other things to worry about. Shape-shifting gangsters keep trying to attack Tavian, for no obvious reason. Tavian fights a mysterious illness he was left with after his adventures in Other, and possibly only some kitsune shrine maidens can help. Everything seems to tie back to the mother who abandoned Tavian when he was just a child, an ignorant fox kit freezing in the woods. Tavian's need to know his past leads him on supernatural adventures around Tokyo, where he discovers satisfyingly predictable revelations.
An enjoyable, mystical coming-of-age, complete with quick getaways, motorcycle chases and no distraction from the already-established, comfortable romance . (Paranormal romance. 13-15)Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7387-3057-8
Page Count: 312
Publisher: Flux
Review Posted Online: Aug. 21, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
There’s some originality here, though it’s hard to unearth amid all the melodrama
An illegitimate girl who hopes to find her creative passion may be connected to another kingdom’s magical history.
At 10, white, orphaned Brienna was brought to Magnalia House. For the last seven years she’s studied to become an arden, an apprentice passion, with the goal of finding her patron. The arden-sisters study art, dramatics, music, wit, and knowledge; Brienna, who has no true vocation, has eccentrically studied in all the fields. Though she doesn’t truly belong among the talented (and somewhat racially diverse) noble girls of Magnalia House, they are her beloved friends. Perhaps once she’s passioned, she can even act on her romantic feelings for the white knowledge master. But Brienna’s having strange visions lately; could they be ancestral memories of an unknown forbear from the neighboring country? What with romance, jealousy, family drama, betrayals, ancient magical history, and characters with multiple secret identities, there’s a nigh-constant pitch of throbbing…well, passion. A voice is like “tamed thunder,” and hair is like “a stream of silver.” Malapropisms abound (“punctures of laughter”; “her beauty warbled by the mullioned windows”). Oddly, most of the shocking revelations of back story are openly detailed in the lengthy family trees at the novel’s opening.
There’s some originality here, though it’s hard to unearth amid all the melodrama . (Fantasy. 13-15)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-247134-5
Page Count: 464
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2017
The Salt trilogy closes with a third generation of children fighting petty but dangerous evils. Hana, a girl from the city's wretched Bawdhouse Burrow, is orphaned when her mother is burned as a witch. Ben grows up far from the city, raised by his grandparents Pearl and Hari in the idyllic village from Gool (2010). When Hana flees the city, she brings with her a terrifying message for those outside its darkness: The Limping Man is coming. He has the terrible power to make people love him even as he torments them, and he plans to wipe out all who stand against him. Since most of the outsiders—Ben's family, the forest Dwellers and "the people without a name"—have mental powers, the Limping Man intends to massacre them. Ben and Hana, along with their allies, must find the Limping Man's secret in order to save their own lives and homes. Ben and Hana’s victories, like those of their parents and grandparents, are local. Even if they do defeat the Limping Man, they cannot vanquish evil from the world; life in the burrows will likely continue to be nasty, brutish and short. The heroes' personalities are defined by their harsh environments, but they reach beyond those limitations. Fantasy heroes who can save only themselves and their loved ones are a welcome change from the usual. (Fantasy. 13-15)
Pub Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-55469-216-3
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Orca
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2011
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